Procrastinator Party - The Reveal

This is my new favorite thing in our house!

But I am not sure that you will think my Procrastinator's Project was completely successful. It has some issues. And it underwent some changes-of-plans. I started out with the plan to paint and hang four different large frames in four different rooms - each with it's own design plan. Well, two of them did not work out quite like I envisioned. So I have not hung them where I had originally planned to. I have to do some more thinking about them.

BUT last Friday I just suddenly decided that I HAD to paint our bathroom so that I could do this wall with one of the large frames. I have had this plan in my mind for awhile. But my bathroom has been painted in a lovely Kilz-Primer-over-ugly-70's-blue-striped-wallpaper for a very long time. I couldn't very well hang all of this pretty stuff on that Kilz primered wallpaper! So Friday I bought paint and painted (most of) my bathroom so that I could assemble this wall. All of this came from Goodwill - I mean, Bonne Volonte - or estate or garage sales. I paid $6 for the large frame on clearance at Hobby Lobby, $1 for the round frame and $1.49 for the rectangle frame at Bonne Volonte, $1 for the pair of silhouettes, and all the necklaces were $1.49 or less at Bonne Volonte or garage sales. I did buy the hooks new at Hobby Lobby. But they were not much.

I even hung all of this by myself. (I know - So what?) But in the past I have always gotten my hubby to help if I had much to hang, especially if I had to screw something into the wall. I don't know why. But this time I hung it all, and even screwed the hooks to the wall myself. And it's all straight!

Oh, yes. I am woman! Hear me roar!

Ok, now that I have shown you the pretty part, I have to confess. I did not finish my bathroom. I could have finished the ceiling, but I ran out of steam. And I knew that I could not paint around the tub, because my hubby has to finish floating out and sanding the new sheetrock here. Soooo, this is what part of it looks like. I know. Pathetic. But now that I have gotten this far, it will inspire hubby to finish around the tub, and then I will finish the paint. AND then I will get the black toile shower curtain that I want! I will show you when all of that is finished.
So, do you see why I say that my project was not entirely successful? But I have a good start on my bathroom, which otherwise would still be really ugly all over!

The frames below are what I had planned on painting for my project. Only one is up on the wall.
But I did get these two painted - so now I just have to decide what to do with them. So, even though I did not do exactly what I had planned, I did get a good start on my bathroom. So I am still happy. And without the push from Melissa at The Inspired Room and her Procrastinator's Party, I would not have even started any of this. So, many thanks to you, Melissa!

To see more Procrastinator's Projects, go to The Inspired Room!

Shannon

Guest Post On Decorating

My name is Peter. I’m a freshman in high school. I’ve been homeschooled all my life. I’m writing a guest post on my mom’s blog. I take a few classes a year in a homeschool co-op and one of them is writing composition. I have to write a ‘human interest story’ for my assignment. So I have decided to write a guest post about ways my mom likes to make her house beautiful. I figured since her blog is about decorating, I should go into decorating here.

My mom loves to decorate. Especially at Christmas time. That’s her favorite time of the year. She starts listening to Christmas music in September! Sometimes even earlier than that! There are lots of things my mom decorates with that are beautiful. Like her three-tiered tray that she sets on a small old table, which she has currently decorated for fall.
My mom loves to stain furniture to a dark brown color and she likes to put old books, keys, jewelry and so forth on the furniture. One of her oddest decorations is the feather trees that she puts around the house. My family always teases her about her weird feather trees.

My mom also loves to decorate her dress form which I call a ‘crash dummy.’ She writes posts and takes picture after picture after picture about her dress form! I just think to myself, “What is so interesting about a limbless, body-shaped crash dummy that you can put clothes on?”

She gets various ideas from decorating shows, decorating magazines, other blogs and so on for new ideas to decorate with. Some of her ideas I think are plain weird, but they always turn out good in the end. Even if I do think they’re weird.

Well, writing this post was a lot easier than I thought because I didn’t have to worry about formal writing rules, such as sentence fragments or run-on sentences. Writing conversationally is a lot easier than the paper I now have to write about blogging for my co-op teacher. Who, I might add, is a groovy teacher.

Peter

How to Make A Feather Wreath - Cheap!

I absolutely LOVE feather wreaths. But they are really expensive! I have an adorable little red feather wreath that is usually on my wreath hanger on the mantel. But this year I was trying to decorate my fall mantel in chocolate, green and silver. So I realllly wanted a brown feather wreath. Cheap.

So I thought I would try to use a cheap feather boa from Hobby Lobby. And one of these wire wreath frames from Hobby Lobby.

I just cut lengths of wire and wired the feather boa to the wreath frame - put a wire about every 2 to 3" so that it stays in a nice full circle shape.

I wired all the way around the outside wire of the wreath frame, then wired all the way around the inside-middle of the wreath frame.

One feather boa was the perfect length to go around twice on the 12" wreath frame from Hobby Lobby. The frame was $1.99. The feather boa was $6.99 (I think) - and you could use a 40% off coupon on the feathers!

It was a little tedious. So you might not want to do this on a day that people have been getting on your last nerve like I did. But even on a day when I had used up all my patience at work, this only took me about 30 minutes.

And then I had a great, cheap, chocolate-colored feather wreath for my fall mantel. It looks great!

I'm going to make a black one sometime soon! Because every room needs a little touch of black!

Shannon

Where Bloggers Create

What a fun blog party! "Where Bloggers Create" is being hosted by Karen at My Desert Cottage. My studio is a work in progress. I can see the finished product in my mind. But I think I am only about half way there. So here it is in its current state.


Francesca lives in my studio. You will usually find her here by the window. This little white table is where I use my Cricut machine for scrapbooking.

I like the way this wall is coming along. As I run across new estate sale finds, this will probably change and grow.

I got these four 12x12 frames at Hobby Lobby. I put a 12x12 sheet of corkboard into each frame, covered by scrapbook paper. I have put photos, embellishments and some vintage jewelry on these - one for me and hubby, and one for each of my kids. I love having these right by my table when I am working in my studio.

A great chandelier that my mom gave me for my birthday!

My husband put adjustable shelves in the closet for me. Lots of storage for my scrapbooking supplies, jewelry making supplies and other crafting needs.

These bookshelves hold our homeschooling books, as well as my crafting books, catalogs, etc. My husband made these. We still need to screw them together at the top and then add molding strips on the fronts and crown molding around the top. When that is done it will have the look of a built-in unit. I will show that to you whenever we get around to it.

Any time I can use something silver and pretty to serve a practical purpose, I do. One of my favorite items is this wonderful silver twine holder.

To see more studios where bloggers create, go to My Desert Cottage by clicking below.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Now I am on my way to make the rounds. I can't wait to see your studios and get some great ideas!

Shannon

Got a Few Old Clock Faces?

photo: BH&G

Hang them from various lengths of chain for some very unique wall art. You could also use long vintage necklaces or strings of fake pearls! You can get old costume jewelry cheap at Goodwill, I mean Bonne Volonte.

I love the way this looks. I am going to be on the prowl for some old junk clocks that I can tear apart!

Shannon

Vintage Drawer Pulls

I found this picture on the BHG website this week. I love the look of these old handles hanging together. You could hang several in your office or studio and use those little clips on them to hold little reminders, business cards, inspirational photos, etc.

You could hang a few in your bathroom or close to your dresser to hold jewelry. That would be so cute!

A little row of these in the kitchen could hold kids sports schedules, recipes, meal plans, photos of your kids, keys, etc.

I think I will be on the lookout for a handful of vintage knobs and handles. I just love this look!

Shannon

Ridding the World of

Ugly Light Fixtures

One Chandelier at a Time

Isn't this the cutest chandelier you have ever seen? My mom gave it to me for my birthday. And my husband hung it yesterday in my studio. It's wonderful!

Do you want to see the light that was in there before? Warning: it's reeaaally ugly!

Yeah, told you. Uuuug-ly. Why did they ever make those things???

Now, back to the pretty! It kind of looks like a crown upside down.

Don't you just love it? (By the way - they are on clearance at Lowe's right now!!)

Shannon

Part-Time Perfectionist

This is my after of my front porch re-do. Melissa at The Inspired Room is hosting a Project Procrastinators Party. So we have had two weeks to complete the painting project that we had been procrastinating on. I chose my two outdoor benches. And along with painting this bench on my front porch, I decided since my front porch was insanely ugly, I should try to give it some help.

So - freshly painted bench, new pots with LIVE plants in them, and a new door mat.

I am a perfectionist about some things. It irks me when people do a sloppy job when it would not have taken that much effort to do it right. But, well, there are some things that I am not a perfectionist about. So I guess I am a part-time perfectionist. Apparently, painting the back of benches carefully falls under the second category. If you go here, you will see the trials that beset me in this process. I had actually hoped to paint my front door black before this "After Party," but, alas, I am too pathetically opposed to sweating that much within a two-week time frame. So when I do get around to applying black paint to the front door (and changing hideous brass kick-plates to silver!) I will show you more pictures.

I love this square planter by the front door. I planted a boxwood in it that had a tag that says "Ideal for Topiaries." I am totally in love with all shapes and sizes of topiaries. I do not currently have any, mainly because I am opposed to yard work and to sweating, both of which are required to grow and sculpt a topiary. I also happen to have a black thumb. But I did buy this little boxwood, in the hope that I can overcome, and the little boxwood will overcome and will grow in wisdom and stature, and become this . . . Beautiful, huh? I loooove topiaries!

And I got rid of the, umm, lovely mat that came with our front door, and bought this one. I love it!

I did show two outdoor benches in my before photos, with the plan to paint them both. The other one is on my back deck. Yeah. Ummm. Yeah. (If you really want to know, you can read "What was I thinking?" two posts down.)

So, here is a reminder of the Before:

And the After:

It's not the wrap-around porch with wicker furniture and plush cushions of my dreams. But at least it is a little more welcoming than it was.

Black front door coming soon. And since that will require more outdoor labor and sweating, you better come back and see it!

Shannon

My Favorite Piece of Furniture

My parents ran across three of these old church kneelers at an auction many years ago. Thankfully, they won all three of them. So now my mom, my sister and I all have one.
It's my favorite piece of furniture I have. Ever since they found these, I have watched for other similar pieces. I haven't ever seen another. Maybe someday I will run across some other kneelers. It would be fun to buy a few more so I could give some to my kids.


We are on spring break this week, and have a lot going on, including my nephew's wedding. So if I don't post, or get around to see you this week, I will be back next week.

This post is my 93rd! So you know what that means! Please be watching. Give-away coming!

Shannon

Cheap Curtains

When we moved into this house, I did not have a lot of money to spend on new decor. The black metal curtain rod and the black metal tie-backs were already on the sliding door. I did not like the curtains that the previous homeowners had up, so I got rid of them, but kept the hardware.
I bought two of the crinkly camel-colored panels, and two of the wine-colored beaded valances at Lowe's. Both the panels and the valances have a pocket to slide onto a rod, but I used ring clips to catch the top of both fabrics because I wanted to be able to easily slide them open and closed.


Sometime later I ran across the strings of beads. I just draped them around the ring clips. It adds a little more sparkle and interest to some otherwise plain window treatments.
And at Christmas (a year ago) I bought two tassels in the Christmas ornaments at Hobby Lobby for half off. I think I paid about $2 for each tassel. They added just a little more interest.

It was all cheap. And I have been happy with the results.

I have some windows in my house that are in desperate need of some interest and sparkle. I think my studio might be next. After all, that is Francesca's room. I just know that she would like pretty window treatments!

Shannon

Take your husband shopping at Home Depot!

Men love this store. What's more important - they love buying things at this store!

We went in yesterday to pick up some FREE little paint chips, so we could decide on a color to paint our bathroom.

We came out with two WONDERFUL chandeliers for our kitchen. The one above is hanging over the main working area of the kitchen. LOVE it!

The beaded chandelier below is hanging over my kitchen table. LOVE it!

What's important to remember here - if I had gone in by myself, I would have looked at these wonderful lights. But I would have drooled, and then left with my free little paint chips.


But with hubby with me, and both of us drooling (ok, maybe he didn't drool, but he did like them), we left with our free little paint chips AND our wonderful chandeliers!

Warning: if you are offended by ugly light fixtures, please do not scroll down any further!

Because the next photo is a picture of the light fixtures that were in our kitchen when we bought this house.

And they are BAD!

The WORST ever made!

Really!

So, look at your own risk.


See? I told you! Scroll back up and look at the new ones again. I don't want you to leave my blog while you are gagging. I want you to come back!


Please. Scroll back up!

Shannon